


After it was Over

by tiredbard



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Koschei is basically stuck in the TARDIS for reasons unspecified but obvious, M/M, it's bitter and they're grieving and oh boy, vague theta/koschei stuff that doesn't really have a set time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28867821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredbard/pseuds/tiredbard
Summary: An exercise in vague Thoschei ramblings.  Allusions to Darkheart, un-named dead companions, and a whole lot of murder.
Relationships: The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who)
Kudos: 3





	After it was Over

“How long has it been?”

They take a breath, trying not to look Theta in the eye. Trying not to start shaking again. The hand they have resting in their lap is clenched so hard that nails might start to draw blood soon, but the one on the table is flat and- they hope- visibly relaxed.

“ _Tell me_.” Theta reaches out to touch their hand, the brief contact makes Koschei jump. The presence of Theta’s mind, familiar and not, pressing against their own.

“Don’t do that!” They snap “Stay out of my head, you don’t belong there anymore.”

Theta recoils as though Koschei had hit them. They don’t really understand why. It’s been too long to keep reacting like that, they’ve been apart too long for it to hurt that much.

So much has changed.

Not that it matters anymore.

“Ko-”

“ _Don’t!”_ The word is forceful and sharp and the flat hand finally balls up into another fist. “I have plenty of pseudonyms to choose from, you lost your right to that name along with everything else.”

“Could she call you that?”

Another breath.

Koschei wished they would just drop it.

They don’t want to think about it, they don’t want-

But Theta won’t drop it until Koschei gives them _something_.

“No. Knew I didn’t like it, or what it reminded me of.” The words are more pointed than need be, but they really can’t bring themselves to care right now. Not just about the words, or how Theta might react, or much of anything really.

Finally they look up, and it’s to see that Theta is on the brink of tears.

Where there was frustration before it starts to bubble into true anger, why do they always do this? Why does it have to turn into a fight about things that have been long since done with? Why can’t they move on?

“Don’t follow me.”

“But-”

“I’m not _leaving_ , I’m just leaving the room, I’ll find you if I need something.”

Not as if Koschei had a choice in the matter as far as properly leaving went. The doors were all locked, the windows would never open for them, not now, not after how Theta had found them.

Kneeling in the middle of a dying colony, carnage spreading out from where they were frozen like a bomb had gone off. Ashes and rubble and blood. Wondering if it was better to just sit there and wait for their own inevitable end, the toxic air would get them eventually, and the suffering would be well deserved.

They’d never heard Theta scream like that.

Well...

Not in a very long time.

~*~

“Are you really going to let this destroy what you’ve become?”

“And what am I exactly, Theta?” Koschei asks, daring an answer, daring them to say something stupid enough to start this argument again. Nothing has changed, nothing is fixed, there was never anything to fix in the first place. Just things to be overcome and memories to banish. Other people’s ideas and other people’s blood and-

Well.

What did it matter now.

“I- you’re.. _better_.” Is what finally comes from Theta’s lips.

Koschei’s laugh is humorless and empty. “Better? You found me in the middle of a fucking _massacre_ and you think that’s _better_?”

They don’t answer that one, so Koschei keeps wrapping bandages around the split skin on Theta’s fingers. It’s methodical and familiar, and it takes them to an easier time. When there was actual comfort in being around one another, and neither had lost so much. When it’s done, and Theta has flexed their hands a few times to make sure nothing is too tight, Koschei takes that as their cue to head for the door.

“Thank you.”

“Of course,” Koschei replies “can’t have my jailer dropping dead, now can I?”

Theta doesn’t really want to see it that way, but it’s not exactly wrong. Koschei is too dangerous in this state to be allowed out, they know that, they’ve accepted it, but that doesn’t mean they have to pretend it’s not true like Theta does.

“D’you have to do that?” Theta asked, looking pained “You know I don’t-”

But the door has already closed behind them, and Koschei is on their way towards the library. Sometimes it feels good, upsetting them, it feels like just a little bit of revenge for all those years of being on opposing sides. All the time spent together and apart in the same breath, of Theta insisting that Koschei was the one not trying to make things right. It wasn’t their responsibility to fix what they hadn’t broken in the first place.


End file.
